How to set up a business marketing calendar? | Bosco Anthony ...

It?s a new year, and its time to get back into the swing of things. Yes this week officially marks when everyone gets into business model and puts their resolutions and business goals into action. Like most businesses its time to get rid of the turkey hangover, and get back to the business routine and make some money. I was surprised to start getting my calendar fill up with requests, events, client meetings and plans just after Christmas. This led me to strategize and map out my marketing calendar early.

The benefits of creating a planned calendar

A marketing business calendar can be defined as the order of events that define your business mapped with the purpose of proper planning. There are various other definitions for a marketing calendar but to me there are three words that ring to mind:

1. Planning
2. Prepared
3. Strategize

As a business owner these three words allowed me to do so much in 2012 including manage over 40 plus speaking engagement, workshops and conference. Now in case you missed my blog post from last year, I strongly recommend you read the benefits of a marketing calendar.

How did I plan my marketing calendar for 2013??

Now as a business owner starting from scratch I have some advise for you? There are three types of events going on in your life in 2013

• The personal events that make your life
• The business calendar of events that shape your business
• The events that highlight your marketing schedule

Now some people might not recommend this but I tend to highlight all three types of calendars into one big major business calendar. Why?

I do this because all three events shape my life and compliment each?, For example I booked my flights to Maui and planned the dates for my Thailand trip this year. When I am away, it allows me to delegate responsibilities for my business to my partners, auto publish my blog posts and better yet, automate my business so I can enjoy the tropical weather! It is important to start off by highlight all the family events, birthdays, stat holidays and planned vacation days.

The next step is to determine the business calendar based on the events going on in your business. For example I was recently nominated to be in the top 7 nominations for best business blog in Vancouver. I have a couple of networking and launch parties to attend to, followed up with a potential social media awards night in March. Some might complain that they haven?t figured out that far but the key is to start planning in advance for the events that you are aware of?

• Business meetings, workshops or conferences you want to attend
• Meet ups or networking events for promoting your business
• Potential speaking opportunities
• Trade fairs, expo?s and conventions
• Seminars
• Prospect meeting?s
• Content strategy and blogging calendar

It is important to start mapping out such business events or pencil in slots when you think some of these events will take place in the first, second, third or fourth quarter. This is when you look at the goals you have set for your business and integrate it into your marketing calendar?This morning I mapped out speaking events, meet ups, workshops and mastermind sessions I am involved in 2013? This way I do not double book or push too many overwhelming things all jammed in one week.

The next steps is to evaluate all the events that happen in the year, Halloween, valentines, christmas, mother?s day and determine your marketing calendar if you?re a location-based business. If you are an online marketer you determine your promotions cycle and determine the type of promotions you want to run? A business colleague?s wife runs a hair salon? At this time she could be mapping out hair promo?s for women who participate in dine out Vancouver early January, mens discount hair cuts around super-bowl sunday in early feb or valentines day promotions not to mention mothers day around the corner? The list is endless

The secret sauce that few apply!?

At this point most people either give up or are done with their calendar? My secret sauce is as follows:

• Resources
• Planning
• Action Plan
• Contact
• Budget

You see by putting a list of the following above items I now have turned goals into action plans? My goal was to launch two more sites for the business in the next few weeks. I am working on research and resources as I write this blog. This coming week I will reach out to the designer with my vision plan and then discuss timelines to get the site launched? Finally the goal is to do a late promotion before the end of the first quarter! Its time to take the vision board and put an action plan!

Are we there yet??

Just when you think your almost done there is one final layer that then makes your business calendar 100% This involves outbound phone calls or reaching out to your network or prospects?Once your events are all mapped out you can now reach out to your network to create joint ventures, promotions, plan an event because you know all your freed up time? You can also add bonus events you wish you could attend but didn?t know if you could?

Why do we go to all this trouble??

To avoid missing out on some great events happening around your business. If you do not map out your 2013 today you are just like everyone that sadly watches this happen and missed out on making 2013 kick ass! If you get a day timer, buy a wall calendar or desk calendar, if you visit ?a stationery store and grab your calendar kit you are half way there? Take action and make stuff happen!

Here is to a prosperous 2013! If you need advise on how to customize your calendar or implement one tweet me or contact me, I would love to help! Finally get off that couch and start planning your year!

What did I use as resources to help with my calendar??

I researched the following to map out my year:

• Travel blogs to book my vacation
• Sporting calendars to book time off for my must see games or recorded PVR
• Family calendars to avoid being that douche bag that forgets to buy a birthday gift on time
• Stat day calendar to remember to take time off and player harder
• Events in Vancouver blogs
• Looked at last years calendar of events that I recorded to plan better this year
• Consulted friends and business colleagues calendars to review their plans
• My accountant and financial planners
• Conference, Seminar and marketing events calendar that I subscribe to
• Meet up, email subscribed lists and global events

The list is endless, but you get the picture! Have you started to map out your calendar?

?

Source: http://www.boscoanthony.com/plan-your-marketing-calendar/

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Sennheiser's Momentum headphones are back in black at CES

Taking the "if it ain't broke, don't don't fix it" approach, German audio equipment maker Sennheiser is reintroducing its Momentum headphones in black. Aside from its Batmanesque color scheme, these are the same sleek set of cans that we got up close and personal with at last year's IFA. A lightweight marriage of stainless steel and buttery smooth sheepskin leather, the Momentum Black features a flexible 3.5mm audio jack -- with sexy red accents on the cups, cable and headband stitching -- simple inline audio controls and a built-in microphone for taking phone calls. If you're into expensive toys and are working with Bruce Wayne's budget, these black beauties can be yours this month for $350.

Gallery: Sennheiser's Momentum headphones are back in black at CES

Continue reading Sennheiser's Momentum headphones are back in black at CES

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wearables

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Us5ONWFslQ0/

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How I Went Completely Paperless in Two Days

When you look at the piles of paper you've stored for years, going paperless feels daunting. Not only do you have to scan everything, but you have to catalogue it, too. While you can't escape the task itself, a Doxie portable scanner?combined with the free, awesome Evernote software?can make the process a whole lot easier.

I put off digitizing my paper for over two years until I started using these two tools. After just a little setup, I got through all my paper in two days and have no trouble staying on top of all the paper that comes my way. Rather than letting it pile up in a drawer or in my car, I just feed it into Doxie and toss it in the recycling. A few times a week, I digitally staple documents together in the included Doxie software, then send them over as PDFs to Evernote. Thanks to Evernote's built-in optical character recognition (OCR), I can then search the full text of any scanned document. Additionally, my digital paper isn't just on my computer but also available through any web browser or smartphone. Normally I wouldn't love the idea of personal information syncing all over the internet, but because Evernote uses SSL I feel comfortable having my semi-private information saved online. All in all, if you want to go paperless effortlessly, securely, and inexpensively, you can do so with Evernote and Doxie. Here's how.

What You'll Need

• Doxie One or Doxie Go ($149-199): The Doxie One is the cheaper of the two scanners, but the Doxie Go comes with a battery so you can scan on the go. Personally, I use the Doxie Go so I can more easily scan away from my computer (and watch TV during those big scanning jobs) but either model will do the job just fine.
• Evernote: You'll use Evernote to store and organize your new digital paper. Download the app and sign up for an account (if you don't have one already).
• Eye-Fi X2 Card (Optional, $30): When you put an Eye-Fi card in Doxie, it'll transfer scans over Wi-Fi back to your computer. While it requires a little extra setup, Doxie works much better this way. All you have to do is scan and check your computer moments later to find the file(s).

Set Up Doxie and Start Scanning

Doxie requires a little bit of setup to get started, but it only takes a few minutes. Just follow these steps:

1. Download the latest version of the Doxie software and install it.
2. Open the software and connect Doxie to your computer when prompted. If using a Doxie Go, let it fully charge.
3. Run the calibration card through the scanner as depicted on the Doxie setup instructions.
4. If using an Eye-Fi card, insert it into your computer and follow Eye-Fi's setup instructions to connect it to your wireless network. Once finished, insert your Eye-Fi card into Doxie's SD card slot.
5. Choose a piece of paper to use as a test scan. Insert it face up into Doxie and wait for the scanner to grab onto it. In a moment, Doxie will scan the document and it'll come out the other side.

That's all you need to do to get started. Just repeat the scanning process for all your documents until you're finished. Because Doxie has an SD card slot and internal memory, you can scan pretty much anywhere regardless of your setup. If using a Doxie One, you'll need to connect it to power with a USB AC adapter. If you're scanning more than 100 pages, you'll need to do this with Doxie Go as well or the battery will run out before you're done. Either way, I recommend taking it to a room where you can do something else like watch television or have a conversation so you aren't spending many hours scanning paper with nothing else to do. If your job allows, you could even take it to work and scan while handling other tasks as well.

Manage Your Scans

Once you've scanned your first batch (or all your paper), go back to your computer and open the Doxie application. If you're using an Eye-Fi card, you should see your scans already. If not, connect Doxie to your computer and it'll start importing them all. You'll notice your scans have generic names and exist as individual pages, but you can remedy this easily. Wherever you have a multipage document, select the pages in the Doxie app and click the Staple button. This will combine all the pages into a single document. After stapling, click on the combined documents name to enter one of your choice. For single-page documents, just rename them and you're done.

Set Up Evernote and Get Organized

Before you can start sending your scans to Doxie, you need to connect it with Evernote. This is incredibly easy to do and only requires a couple of steps:

1. Open the Doxie and app go into its Preferences/Settings.
2. Click on the Local Apps tab.
3. Click the + button to add an app and choose Evernote.
4. From the Format drop down menu, choose PDF. (You don't need to choose PDF with OCR because Evernote will handle the OCR for you.)

That's it! You can now send scans as PDFs by clicking on them, clicking the Send button, and choosing Evernote. Doxie will do the rest. Before you send anything over, though, let's create an organization plan in Evernote.

Create an Organization Plan in Evernote

Evernote offers several ways to organize your scans (and other notes), but the two most common are tags and notebooks. We're going to focus primarily on notebooks, but we'll talk about how you can use tags to make finding what you want much easier, too.

When you open the Evernote app, first create a notebook called "Digital Paper" (or with some other equally generic name) to store every scan that comes from Doxie. When you send your scans over from Doxie, they'll end up in your Evernote Central Stream. This isn't ideal because that's where everything in Evernote goes. That's why you want to have a special notebook ready-to-go for all your scans. Depending on the version of Evernote you're using, you may or may not see your notebooks in the sidebar. If you do, great. If not, find your Digital Paper notebook and drag it into the sidebar to create a shortcut. You'll be adding scans to it frequently, so you want to have it easily accessible.

In addition to a digital paper notebook, you'll want to create a series of sub-notebooks for more detailed organization. If you're scanning receipts for tax season, create one called "Tax Receipts." If you're scanning old greeting cards, create one called "Greeting Cards I'm Feeling Too Guilty to Throw Out." You get the idea. You don't have to create all your notebooks right now, of course. If you find you need a new one as you go, just add it on the fly.

Once you've set up everything just the way you like it in Evernote, start sending scans over from Doxie and organizing them. If you want to get really specific, you can go through each scan in Evernote and tag it. Newer versions of Evernote (5 and up) allow you to add tag shortcuts in the sidebar by dragging a tag to it. If you'd prefer to use tags instead of notebooks, simply tag each scan with whatever criteria you want and view your scans through Evernote's tag pages.

More Stuff You Can Do with Doxie and Evernote

You now know the basics of going paperless with Doxie and Evernote, but there's more you can do if you want. For starters, you'll want to download Evernote's mobile apps so you can access your scans on the go. This is remarkably helpful when you need to look up a document at a moments notice, and especially when you have to send one to someone. Instead of sending, you can also create shared notebooks in Evernote and allow certain people to access specific content. For example, you could share tax receipts easily with your accountant once and simply update the notebook after scanning new ones. You'd only have to send one email about receipts, rather than several, and there wouldn't be any issues with attachments. You could also use shared notebooks to easily share scanned photos with friends and family. If you play around, you'll find many ways to take your scanned paper in new directions and remove the physical clutter from your life for good.

Need a more complex setup? Check out our complete guide to digitizing your stuff for additional options.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/-Vw-5u6m88s/how-i-turned-three-years-of-paper-into-a-highly-organized-searchable-document-database-in-two-days

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Frontier Communications extends security, backup services line ...

Frontier Communications (Nasdaq: FTR) and TRG Customer Solutions, an outsourced contact center solutions provider, established a partnership to extend the telco's computer security and backup services to TRG customers.

Under the terms of the agreement, TRG will offer three of Frontier's Secure products: computer security; cloud-based unlimited backup and sharing; and proactive identity protection.

These products are available to both Frontier and non-Frontier customers in all 50 states.

A key target of the TRG pact is businesses that are looking for an alternative source for network security and backup and want to forgo having to deploy their own systems on their premises.

The two companies claim that, by handing off these functions to Frontier and TRG, businesses can "experience revenue growth, improved operational effectiveness, increased customer satisfaction and reduced costs."

This partnership also provides benefits to both Frontier and TRG.

For Frontier, the expanded TRG partnership means they have another broad channel to sell their security and backup solutions. Since Frontier is a traditional landline provider that's been seeing inevitable declines in its traditional PSTN landline businesses, this is another example of how it is working to diversify its reach.

TRG can add these products to its own portfolio and leverage its well-established customer relationships and brand recognition to sell these services. While existing TRG customers could go to Frontier or another online backup and security provider, it's likely they would prefer to work with a partner they use for other technical support functions.

For more:
- see the release

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FairPoint, Frontier get into the energy game

Source: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/frontier-communications-extends-security-backup-services-line-through-trg-p/2013-01-04

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Viva Spring | South Orange Theater and Art & Entertainment Events ...

The South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) is a world-class performing arts space in the middle of South Orange, featuring music, theater, dance and comedy.? In addition to entertainment events, the Center hosts a variety of performing arts education programs including, Performances for Schools, ArtWorks, New Jersey Youth Theatre, TADA! Youth Theater and Lydia Johnson Dance. The facility's loft and theater are available to rent for private functions. There is also a Clearview Cinemas on the ground floor. SOPAC opened in November 2006 and is located next to the South Orange train station and has its own lot, which is used for commuter permit parking during the day.?

Source: http://southorange.patch.com/events/viva-spring

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Researchers: Online science news needs careful study

Friday, January 4, 2013

A science-inclined audience and wide array of communications tools make the Internet an excellent opportunity for scientists hoping to share their research with the world. But that opportunity is fraught with unintended consequences, according to a pair of University of Wisconsin?Madison life sciences communication professors.

Dominique Brossard and Dietram Scheufele, writing in a Perspectives piece for the journal Science, encourage scientists to join an effort to make sure the public receives full, accurate and unbiased information on science and technology.

"This is an opportunity to promote interest in science ? especially basic research, fundamental science ? but, on the other hand, we could be missing the boat," Brossard says. "Even our most well-intended effort could backfire, because we don't understand the ways these same tools can work against us."

Recent research by Brossard and Scheufele has described the way the Internet may be narrowing public discourse, and new work shows that a staple of online news presentation ? the comments section ? and other ubiquitous means to provide endorsement or feedback can color the opinions of readers of even the most neutral science stories.

"Today, I can use my mobile phone, tablet, or laptop to almost instantly look up more information than ever before," Scheufele says. "But the way most people look up information in online settings may significantly restrict what types of information they encounter." Online news sources pare down discussion or limit visibility of some information in several ways, according to Brossard and Scheufele.

Many news sites use the popularity of stories or subjects (measured by the numbers of clicks they receive or the rate at which users share that content with others or other metrics) to guide the presentation of material.

The search engine Google offers users suggested search terms as they make requests (offering up "nanotechnology in medicine, " for example, to those who begin typing "nanotechnology" in a search box). Users often avail themselves of the list of suggestions, making certain searches more popular, which in turn makes those search terms even more likely to appear as suggestions.

"Our analyses showed a self-reinforcing spiral, which means more people see a shrinking, more similar set of news and opinions on science and technology subjects when they do online searches," Brossard says.

The consequences become more daunting for the researchers as Brossard and Scheufele uncover more surprising effects of Web 2.0.

In their newest study, they show that independent of the content of an article about a new technological development, the tone of comments posted by other readers can make a significant difference in the way new readers feel about the article's subject. The less civil the accompanying comments, the more risk readers attributed to the research described in the news story.

"The day of reading a story and then turning the page to read another is over," Scheufele says. "Now each story is surrounded by numbers of Facebook likes and tweets and comments that color the way readers interpret even truly unbiased information. This will produce more and more unintended effects on readers, and unless we understand what those are and even capitalize on them, they will just cause more and more problems."

If even some the for-profit media world and advocacy organizations are approaching the digital landscape from a marketing perspective, Brossard and Scheufele argue, scientists need to turn to more empirical communications research and engage in active discussions across disciplines of how to most effectively reach large audiences.

"It's not because there is not decent science writing out there. We know all kinds of excellent writers and sources," Brossard says. "But can people be certain that those are the sites they will find when they search for information? That is not clear."

It's not about preparing for the future. It's about catching up to the present. And the present, Scheufele says, includes scientific subjects ? think fracking, or synthetic biology ? that need debate and input from the public.

"A lot of people are saying we're in an intense period of change, let's see where the dust settles. But we're in a world where the dust is not going to settle for a long time," he says. "What we really do need is a systematic effort between sciences and social sciences to use this new environment to get the science across and public reactions across without biases that the process itself may incorporate."

###

University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://www.wisc.edu

Thanks to University of Wisconsin-Madison for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126135/Researchers__Online_science_news_needs_careful_study

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Instagram Still Promotes Eating Disorders, British Charity 'Beat' Says

Although Instagram has taken some steps to ban hashtags and images that celebrate eating disorders, one charity is still concerned that the photo-sharing app, which boasts more than 80 million users, is still fertile ground for encouraging dangerous food restrictions.

Back in April, Instagram made it impossible to search for such hashtags as ?thinspo? and ?anorexia,? which Instagrammers pair with images of emaciated bodies. It also came out against sharing images that glorify self-harm and emaciation.

While going to such lengths helped remove more than 30,000 graphic pictures, according to the company, The Telegraph reports Beat ?- a British nonprofit that helps people struggling with eating disorders ?- is still concerned about the ease with which users can still post, search and access photos that promote starvation and impossible body standards.

?It?s worrying that with the powerful medium of social networking and the growing popularity of phone apps such as Instagram, people are able to easily access images that encourage the individual to believe that an eating disorder is a lifestyle choice and to avoid treatment,? a Beat spokesperson told The Telegraph. "Some sites have acted to remove content that is seen as dangerous and encouraging people to do dangerous things. Eating disorders as a lifestyle choice should be treated in the same way."

Even though Instagram has banned some search terms, many others -- including #ana, a slang term for anorexia, which yields nearly 300,000 results -- still give users the chance to find, like and comment on photos of women with protruding ribs and tiny waists. Many users also take to uploading their own images to other social media, such as Twitter, a practice that comes with even fewer restrictions.

In addition to sharing photos of dangerously skinny women, users who consider themselves part of the ?thinspiration? community also often open up about their body obsessions in their site bios.

"It's like we're all part of this secret community that most of our family and friends don't have the slightest clue about,? a "thinspiration" blogger told The Huffington Post in February, before Tumblr banned such blogs.

Although Instagram hasn?t outright disabled its search function for all eating-disorder related terms, a content-advisory warning -- along with a link to the National Eating Disorders? website -- shows up before users can click on the images.

Such a warning is not a full-proof deterrence, however, since users can still glorify the images with their comments.

To help curb the sharing of such destructive images, and guide people fascinated with skinny bodies toward healthful outlets, Beat told the Telegraph that it wants Instagram to take a more proactive approach.

"Beat also believes that individuals should be pointed towards pro recovery sites,? the spokesperson told the paper, ?providing acceptance and support throughout society so that these alternative sites are no longer the only refuge a person feels they can seek.?

If you're struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorders helpline at 1-800-931-2237.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/instagram-eating-disorders_n_2404466.html

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